I've read my graphic card owner's manual five times already and I just can't find anything on how to get connected with the TV. The TV-Out plug on the back of the card is different from my old TNT2 M64 with TV-out because the new GeForce2 uses an s-video plug. The cable they provided in the package however didn't quite fit the plug on the TV, because the TV has an AV-like plug. What do I do now? I'm so desperate to play games and watch videos on a BIGGER SCREEN. Also, do I need to tune the TV to the right channel to receive the output from my graphic card.
(See below for an update to the question).
Warzar the Razorback, Geelong, VIC
What you have is an s-video connector, and if your TV doesn't have an s-video input, you'll need to buy an adaptor. If your TV had s-video in, it would give a better picture.
You don't tune the TV to a channel -- you select the AV input that you're plugged into.
You can learn more in these earlier HelpStation questions.
Also see this new answer:
How do I connect a PC to a TV via a VCR?
UPDATE:
Warzar then wrote in to add the following:
Thanks for answering my "TV-Out" questions, but now there's a problem with the TV. The TV that I'll be using for TV-Out doesn't have an AV input. Do I have to try tuning every channel there is until I get an image? And also, my graphic card's "settings and properties" won't allow me to enable the "TV" mode -- does that mean I must finish all the plugging works first then the "TV" option will be enabled?
If your TV doesn't have at least one AV input, it must be an older set, or a fairly inexpensive one, as it's standard nowadays. Even the cheap Chinese TV sets have an AV input -- usually on the back, next to the antenna socket, and sometimes also on the front (so you can connect a video camera or a game console.
TV works like this -- the video signal consists of a component that determines the brightness (luminance) of a signals at every instant in time and another that controls the colour (chrominance) of the signal. The electron beam is scanned across the face of the TV tube, steps down and keeps scanning until the screen has its full complement of 625 lines. Ideally this produces a result which is similar to a digitised picture -- a matrix of coloured dots or pixels.
The way to get this picture to the TV set from the TV station has been to superimpose these two signals onto a high frequency radio signal -- typically hundreds of megahertz. This is then called the "RF" signal, and is what the antenna captures, and the TV set converts back into the two signals. The problem is that this process introduces signal degradation such as smearing, loss of focus and colour distortion. It also allows ghosting and snow and the other problems associated with TV reception. (This is where digital TV comes in, and will revolutionise the quality of our TV in the future -- see
http://www.dba.org.au for lots of good information.)
When you play a video tape or similar on your TV, there are three ways to transfer the signal from the VCR to the TV. A DVD player adds a higher option, but drops the lowest, RF option. These have been discussed in
What are composite and S-video outputs?
which you should read.
Basically it says that feeding any video signal from a signal source (VCR, game console, PC and so on) should be done the best way possible, otherwise you will degrade the signal. A TV is nowhere near as high quality as a computer monitor at the best of times, so why introduce more ways to reduce the quality.
Anyway, back to Warzar's problem.
If you don't have an S-Video input you'd use a composite (AV ) input, but since you don't have that you can't directly feed the signal in. That is, none of the channels will receive the signal because it isn't an RF signal in the first place. There are ways to get the signal in, but as I've said, they degrade it so much that I wonder if it's worth it. They are:
- Plug the composite out (AV) lead from the video card into your VCR and then use it to feed the TV, as presumably you have it set to a particular channel.
- Buy an RF modulator, which is like a miniature TV broadcast station, but connected by coaxial cable (TV lead). You can even buy ones that transmit the signal to the TV so you don't need any wires -- they're called TV senders.
This is an RF modulator from Tandy
...and this is the TV sender.
Let us know if none of this helps
Warzar.
Paul Zucker